Frozen gauges

[Costick]

Hello I have a 1999 cat d4hxl I had a battery issue where the ground post started to deteriorate I swapped batteries and it worked fine day 1 went back to work and all the gauges had frozen or spiked and the second battery had a deteriorated or melted ground post as well any advice is appreciated it痴 the main battery under fuse box the battery on opposite side has had no problems since replaced last year.

 

[searcyfarms]

I would say just luck of the draw - I have always heard it said always change out batteries in pairs never replace one with a new one and expect things to last long, I tried it once and got 2 days out of mine, I do not know why or understand the electrical gobblegook around it all but I have always w/out exception replaced both batteries at the same time regardless now.

I have multiple machines with dual batteries and they all get two new ones at the same time - my guess - the old battery cant equalize the power of the replacement and it basically causes it to fail. They share the load so that is my logical explanation - I am sure some really smart electrical engineer can explain it in more detail but im content with my logic.

 

[Costick]

I will take that into account in the future but it now has 2 new batteries still has problem might have found the issue on my way to try it out in the morning . I went thru entire system today and it’s my dash lights as well as my gauges now so think it’s a grounding issue I cleaned the switchin battery compartment as well as the connections and found it was not getting a good connection on opposite side clamp so I picked up a new one to try out in the morning so it’s going to get traced out hopefully sooner than later and cheaper rather than unnecessary costs lol. Thanks again for reply and advice on furture battery changes.

 

[searcyfarms]

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you have a cut out switch in there with a lever that makes continuity - those stupid things are always going bad for me, I think those contacts don't last inside there - I have replaced two of them in both my skid steers as I first started noticing a click when trying to start and then I move that lever back n forth and it will usually work - you are probably onto something with that ground problem especially if there has been any corrosion where the ground/chassis meet also.